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For 26 years, President Aleksandr Lukashenko has built a regime with his own eccentric and authoritarian image, and now faces the challenge to date of his inauguration.
By Andrew Higgins
He’s joking about ruling a dictatorship. Greet your generals with your teenage son, who accumulates his love of dressing in army uniforms; commands a brutal security service that makes other people disappear; and when Covid-19 arrived, he told his other people to play hockey, drive tractors and don’t worry about it.
Alexander Lukashenko, the troubled leader of Belarus and the top enduring leader of the former Soviet Union, leads a regime that is less of a one-party state than a one-man state. In his 26 years as president, he has reshaped Belarus into a strategic and reliable authoritarian buffer between Russia and NATO member democracies such as Poland.
Clinging to force amid mass protests this month, Lukashenko, the former director of a Soviet collective pig farm, might seem like a relic from an era the world had forgotten or barely noticed, but years before Vladimir Putin took strength, Lukashenko, who promised to “clean up” Russia, made similar promises to his country and paved the way for Putin to go on : a figure difficult to understand about a fantastic and methodical rise to non-public domination.
However, since an election on 9 August, the largest demonstrations in the country’s history have verified whether Lukashenko can simply keep it in place after obtaining a crushing victory that is generally considered fiction. Up to 100,000 demonstrators arrived in the centro. de of the minsk capital on Sunday, a tough demonstration of defiance in a country of 9. 5 million inhabitants.
Mr Lukashenko sent his own message of defiance, flying by helicopter to his presidential palace and leaving to thank an insurrectional police squad with an automatic weapon in hand, accompanied by his son, who was also armed Lukashenko, whose war parties occasionally called him mentally unstable, recently warned of a possible NATO attack , saying he was preparing the Belarusian army to repel the invaders.
The scene of a blushing dictator with a gun highlighted how much he and his country, whose national anthem begins with the words “We Belarusians are nonviolent people,” have replaced since he pointed out in the early 1990s, promising coverage of an elite of intimidation. .
With a brutal rural accessory and a ill-fitting suit, Lukashenko spoke at the Belarusian Legislative Assembly in December 1993 against thunder opposed to “chaos” and “criminals,” calling Belarusians “hostages of a monstrous, immoral and unper manipulated formula that manipulates and deceives the people.
He spent almost overnight from provincial to vengeful angel, the country’s first elected president six months later with promises to fight the elites entrenched in the call of the people.
In his inauguration, he quoted Abraham Lincoln on democracy by noting that “the end of anarchy has come. “At a reception after his oath, he told George Krol, the most sensible American diplomat in Belarus at the time, that he felt a kinship with President Clinton because of his humble shared origins.
“He was a populist leader, a foreigner speaking on behalf of other people who felt victimized, democracy, the market economy, the former elites of the Communist Party,” he recalled. Krol, now retired, idiot, but they underestimated his ruthless insight.
After 26 years and five other elections, all more rigged than the previous one, independent observers say, Lukashenko remains president and presents himself as the tireless defender of the little man. In February, he joked with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that “our dictatorship has a unique feature: everyone rests on Saturday and Sunday, but the president is working. “
But his schtick wears out. His 1994 winning motto – “Neither left nor right, but with the people” – was replaced by a new war cry from the street, chanted even through many who once thought of him as their savior: “Go away!Get out of here!”
“When he started, he believed what he was saying and so did people. They wanted to punish the elite and that’s why they chose someone they thought would do that,” said Aleksandr Feduta, Feduta’s crusader manager. Lukashenko in 1994, the last time Belarus held free and fair elections.
“He destroyed the system, ” added Mr. Feduta, “but it’s the system. “
transliteration
From the New York Times, I’m Michael Barbaro. It’s “The Daily. “
For weeks, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Belarus to call for the resignation of its president, Aleksandr Lukashenko. Today: my colleague Ivan Nechepurenko, on how europe’s last dictator came here to force and his struggle to keep in it.
It’s Wednesday, September 2nd.
Ivan, I know it’s founded in Russia, in Moscow, so where are you now?
Lately I am in Belarus, a country of about 9. 5 million people between Russia and the European Union, and I am here to cover the disputed re-election of outgoing President Aleksandr Lukashenko.
In Belarus, President Aleksandr Lukashenko won the presidential vote by 79. 9%, to the last exit poll.
[MULTITUD CANTO]
His re-election caused other people who opposed him to protest, because they felt that the announced result, 80% in his favor, is totally incompatible with reality.
(IN RUSSIAN) We live in the Stone Age, Belarus lives in the 21st century and wherever our leader, our former leader, takes us, we will use weapons opposed to the government.
International observers never any of the elections in Belarus to be lazy and fair. And today, there have also been many reports of violations at the ballot box.
So, by saying he won with more than 80%, no one will.
We attend days of protests that are violently suppressed through Lukashenko’s own security service, with rubber bullets and deafening grenades and everything.
[CONCUSSION IN THE CROWDS]
Meanwhile, Lukashenko himself is essentially silent and we do not know literally what his interpretation of what is happening is, because we think he could resign, so on Saturday night, almost a week after Election Day, we are informed that he will. Give a rally by picking up your followers in the middle of Minsk.
And what happens at this rally?
[CONCUSSION IN THE CROWDS]
So when I get to the rally, in independence’s main square, I walk through the side streets leading to it and I see that all those buses are parked on the sides with other people’s equipment standing. that other people were transported by bus and that many other people, if not most, did not come of their own free will.
Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko! [APPLAUSE]
And shortly after the rally, Lukashenko himself took the stage.
(IN RUSO) Dear friends!
And I’m very curious to see what he’s going to say, because after what I saw on the streets, the police used rubber bullets, tear fuel and deafening grenades, injuring many, and it would be nice to see how he would justify it.
(IN RUSSIAN) Even if they calm down now, after a while they will slowly come out of their holes like rats.
And what he did was the opposite, what he did, he said I own this country.
Uh?
And those opposition people are rats, and they’re rubbish, and they’re paid conspirators who just need to oppose the stability we’ve earned with sweat.
[SPEAK RUSSIAN]
He said, And remember, if you destroy Lukashenko, if you destroy your first president, that will be the beginning of your end.
(IN RUSSIAN) You’re asking me to get the country in order, I did!
He basically said that I created your country and that you are very grateful and allow me to rule over you for the rest of my life.
Sensational.
(IN RUSSIAN) I betrayed you. Jamais. Et I’ll do that!
Ivan, when Lukashenko says he created Belarus, what do you mean?And is that correct?
Well, that’s right in a way. Because, of course, he’s the first president of this country.
[CORO CANTO]
In Moscow, the sickle and hammer are coming down for the moment and an era is coming to an end.
The red flag of Soviet communism was still waving last weekend, but it has flown over a country that no longer exists.
Belarus became independent in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, and others are euphoric about the concept of achieving their independence, of obtaining their own flag, their own identity . . .
[PEOPLE SINGING AND NEEDLEING]
– the ability to expand the language itself.
But soon after, they that democracy, for example, they have acquired also brings chaos.
A significant proportion of the country’s elderly and young people not only live in poverty, but survive slightly.
And the economy is not working well because, like the rest of the Soviet Union, the Belarusian economy is a planned economy with no market, with costs set from a single medium: Moscow, essentially. And now we have to turn this massive economy into a market economy And in the process, many other people in Belarus feel a lot of pain.
Right.
And social coverage systems can’t even start keeping up with inflation.
Because the factories are starting to close. Their wages, in fact, are going down and, in 1994, they seem to be in a position to change the freedoms acquired by a sense of stability that brings peace to their families. Presidential elections are called, the first in the country. story And that’s when a young Aleksandr Lukashenko takes the stage.
[SPEAK RUSSIAN]
And Ivan, who is Lukashenko right now, while other people in Belarus are struggling to figure out what even post-Soviet Belarus looks like, realize that they yearn for stability?
He is the one who comes from a very modest origin –
[SPEAK RUSSIAN]
– a small town in eastern Belarus, which temporarily ascended through the ranks to a collective farm manager, then entered politics.
[SPEAKS RUSSIAN]
And it turns out to be very motivated and very charismatic, and other people pay attention to it.
People like him, especially the other people in the villages who have suffered the most, and he’s looking to communicate with them directly by telling them I can make your life now. I can take your lives to where they were when you enjoyed them so much. much, when the Soviet Union was somewhat at the height of its power.
So how do the other Belarusians react to this crusade message, to this kind of nostalgic and pastist Soviet message?
Like.
Anti-corruption crusader radical Aleksandr Lukashenko is on the verge of a transparent victory. With his country’s economy in immediate decline, Lukashenko pledged to purge the steps of force and cancel market reforms.
Win the election. And temporarily he begins to keep his promises.
Mhm.
It increases other people’s wages. It will introduce state over prices, cancel many of the market economy reforms presented to it, and stop the privatization of state-owned enterprises. He helps keep them in the hands of states and other people are very happy. Because they feel they replace them without delay and their popular life improves. But what other people don’t realize is that the main explanation for why he can deliver them was because Russia has necessarily subsidized the Belarusian economy through a program called “oil for kisses. “
“Oil for kisses” is very suggestive. What does that mean?
Well, that essentially means that Russia, as a superpower, was necessarily giving Belarus giant amounts of oil that Belarus could simply refine and sell in European markets and the difference. Thus, in doing so, Russia necessarily sought to unite Belarus with Moscow. .
Russia basically uses loose oil as a link with this former republic and, in return, Russia gets the goodwill, the brotherhood, the kind of loyalty from Belarus.
Well, also because the Belarusian leader realizes perfectly well that the well-being of his country and the goodwill of his citizens have this total project. He realizes that his own political lifestyle depends on Russia.
And I have the impression, Ivan, that in this period, the West — the United States in particular — is watching all those former Soviet republics with wonderful mistrust and trying to make sure that they do not fall back into old Soviet habits, and that they do not get too close to Russia, because they need to make sure that they follow the path to democracy. So how’s this going about Lukashenko and Belarus?
What is happening is that you temporarily realize that this kind of mistrust that you have described is an advantage for him, that he can negotiate between Russia and the West, that he can dance in the middle, praising and criticizing both, and alternating in some cases. Because Russia doesn’t need it to move to the West, and the West doesn’t need it to pass to Russia. And he can get advantages from it. And he does his career in a masterful way. For example, in 1996 –
The referendum has ended in the former Soviet Republic of Belarus and the controversy it has generated is strong.
– leads a very debatable referendum –
They give it much greater powers over Parliament, such as a new five-year term.
– this is largely his powers.
The president said the accusations of dictatorship are unfounded.
And basically, this becomes his first step, the acquisition of dictatorial powers, and Western powers condemn him to ostracism, essentially. And the following year . . .
[MUSIC]
– Symptom this Union-State agreement with Russia in a giant rite held at the Grand Kremlin Palace.
Boris Yeltsin that the treaty of integration between Russia and neighbouring Belarus allows the two countries to retain their sovereignty.
During the ceremony, the two Russian and Belarusian presidents, Lukashenko and then-President Yeltsin, kiss, which becomes this kind of very symbolic moment for both countries.
[MUSIC]
Belarusian President Lukashenko desperately needs financial aid, and his country’s centralized planning Soviet-style economy is on an even worse stage than Russia’s.
Russia sees it as rebuilding its former empire again.
They say it’s a smart deal for both countries. The West is very safe.
And the West, of course, is watching a lot of what is happening and is fitting increasingly willing to settle for Lukashenko with his new semi-dictatorial powers, because they don’t need him to be completely swallowed by Russia. remain an independent state.
Therefore, the West becomes more willing to settle for it because it defies its conventions and desires, because it is perceived as very powerful.
Of course. Over time, he increases his powers. Limit the deadline. He’s suffocating all the remnants of the loose press. Scatter the rallies. In fact, he’s killing his opponents.
Did he kill his opponents?
Well, it is widely accepted in Belarus and around the world that Lukashenko, at least complicit in the deaths of several of his political rivals in the late 1990s, many of his former allies disappear. And what happens next is that there are all those accusations that he did, and some evidence has emerged to corroborate those claims. And that evidence is pretty solid.
Mhm. So he’s getting more and more emboldened at this dance, which raises fears that the West will partner with Russia, and that means the West feels he has to settle for it and give him what he wants. there’s less power. And he understands.
Yes, that’s right. But Vladimir Putin arrives in 1999. Et Vladimir Putin is another type of president than his predecessor Boris Yeltsin. It’s much bolder. He’s much more pragmatic and needs tangible Lukashenko things instead of just kissing, rather than just telling him he’s faithful.
Hm.
And for Lukashenko, this is a very precarious position, because he can’t give Poutine anything, Il fears that if he gives Putin, for example, the right to deploy an air base in the country, he would necessarily void his price in the eyes of the West.
Because that would mean he’s giving everything to Russia.
Ouais. Et would necessarily get caught in Mr Putin’s hands and become his faithful servant in truth, which in mere words, as before.
Hm.
Then Lukashenko is afraid of him. But, of course, he fears Putin’s obvious preference for Belarus directly, which would diminish his role not only in the eyes of the West, but also in the eyes of his own people. There is no preference for Lukashenko if Putin is right in Array. ? So, of course, you don’t prefer that to happen, and it’s essentially cornered everywhere.
Mhm.
Then –
We begin with a developing crisis in Ukraine following the Russian invasion of Crimea.
In 2014, Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula to Ukraine.
The interim president of Ukraine said the Russian invasion was not only a threat, but a declaration of war.
In most countries of the world, Russia is to blame for a major violation of foreign law, the annexation of Crimea.
The political crisis took a worrying turn backward last week, with Russia deploying troops in Crimea, taking this component of southeastern Ukraine well.
And we will continue to read about the other tactics in which we can help our Ukrainian friends achieve their universal rights and enjoy the security, prosperity and dignity they deserve.
And, of course, Vladimir Putin is for his old best friend, the closest best friend in fact: Belarus and Lukashenko.
Right.
– him in this disastrous situation. After all those billion-dollar years sent to Belarus to the Lukashenko regime.
It turns out as the top herbal consumer to call and say: please speak on behalf of Russia, even though we have just colonized the Ukrainian component.
Ouais. Et this is particularly important. Because Lukashenko represents an ancient Soviet state, so he would be someone, like Ukraine, who would back what Russia has done to Ukraine, which would make a massive symbolic difference, only for Putin, but for the entire post-Soviet space. for him. And Lukashenko refuses to recognize Crimea as Russian and refuses to approve Russia’s actions.
So, at this moment, Lukashenko obviously chooses not to support Russia, and if I am Putin, I am waiting for him. Because that is why I have been investing in Belarus for so long, just for a moment like this.
Of course. And you have to perceive what kind of boy Putin is, if he betrays him like that, he’ll never forget it.
So what does this decision mean to Lukashenko?
Well, dating between Russia and Belarus is becoming increasingly bitter. Russia makes the decision to reconsider the “oil for kiss” program. In 2015, Russia introduced a reform package that would fundamentally nullify the program.
So that’s his punishment.
I’d say so. Yes.
And so Putin is disconnecting what has become of this Belarusian economy and Lukashenko’s success.
Of course. Since all those state-owned enterprises that Lukashenko has privatized remain incredibly inefficient.
Mhm.
Belarus is entering an era of sustained economic stagnation.
Mhm.
It doesn’t fall off the cliff, the economy. But other people realize that, in essence, the economy will never grow with this model and there is no way to do it. It’ll only get worse.
How have the Belarusian people reacted to Lukashenko since the economy came into this stagnation?
People are increasingly tired of seeing their country frozen in their past and looking to the future. They’re abroad. They need to see the hectic life here, they need to see some development. They need to see opportunities they can integrate into. They don’t need to feel inferior to everyone else they have to deal with in the countries of Belarus.
And Lukashenko is not in a position to respond to that, because he himself is trapped in the Soviet past, so with the presidential election coming this year, other people’s patience begins to wear out and his frustration begins to spread from his inner mind into public life AND other people are beginning to realize that it is time to change.
We’ll be back.
Ivan, I wonder if you can describe the pre-election era and your impression of when it becomes transparent that other Belarusians need change.
Well, what’s going on is that Lukashenko himself obviously ignores the change of temperament in his own country, but other people are. Some others within his own inner circle, for example, his former ambassador to the United States and his former foreign minister, make the decision to oppose him and run against him.
Uh?
Like the head of a Russian bank. But this is just the beginning, the most important thing is that your campaigns become very popular. And other people turn to them in giant amounts and, in addition to those two, you have someone else, a popular video blogger.
(NON-ENGLISH DISCOURSE) I’m Sergei Tikhanovsky, a Belarusian businessman and blogger.
Yours is Sergei Tikhanovsky.
(NON-ENGLISH DISCOURSE) I’m running for president.
And he travels with his camera throughout the country and interviews other people who were destined to be the basis of the strength of Lukashenko’s regime.
(NON-ENGLISH DISCOURSE) A user can’t live our lives, we’ll all have to get up. Because everyone knows perfectly well that our government is not legitimate.
The people of the small towns, the people of the factories and all those other people complain about Lukashenko.
(NON-ENGLISH DISCOURSE) You can defeat someone. It’s like the fairy tale where there’s a cockroach.
It’s a cockroach you have to kill.
(NON-ENGLISH DISCOURSE) They fix all the officials, they like kings, they thrive and you thrive in poverty.
They call it someone who just sucks their blood, someone they hate, and they say it openly. This guy downloads all this on YouTube and is becoming very popular, and realizes that he might need to run and makes the decision to do so. And as his crusade progresses, he also becomes increasingly popular, so you have at least 3 very popular candidates, and this is the moment Lukashenko realizes that everything is going on and that this crusade is going to be another of all the others. .
Hm.
And as those three applicants emerge, he discovers that there has really been a mistake in his vision of his own country and, instead of accepting it, makes the decision to get rid of all that, so what he’s doing is imprisoning him. their rivals, adding the blogger who travels the country talking to farmers, or forcing them to flee the country.
So, at this point, it’s necessarily running without opposition.
That’s what he thinks. But it’s more complicated.
As the election approaches, hopes are on this woman’s shoulders.
The blogger’s wife, Svetlana Tikhanovsky –
Svetlana Tikhanovsky hopes to be president of Belarus.
– makes the decision to oppose Mr Lukashenko in her husband’s post.
[SPEAK Belarusian]
I run instead. Not because he wants strength or because he’s a politician and wants to be president and run the country. No, I’m running for my husband.
So how the Lukashenko?
He necessarily dismisses her as someone she doesn’t even value talking about. She says she’s not her top tough opponent, that the others are more threatening. A member of Lukashenko’s presidential leadership says there are no women’s restrooms in his workplace.
Hm.
You know, he’s just not equipped, he’s not, I mean, they essentially seek to be very insulting and degrading, and he essentially needs to paint her as a person.
And you have a fundamental reason that it’s a risk to him?
Well, of course not. Because, as before Election Day,
It is the largest collection observed in Belarus since the independence of the Soviet Union.
– able to gather thousands of people at their rallies across the country.
(IN Belarus) I’m in favor of victory. [APPLAUSE]
And other people have come to see it, even though Belarus is a police state. , threatens to waste his task if he shows up at an opposition rally. And the fact that other people have made the most of all those threats means they’ve really supported it.
Mhm.
And all those other applicants he imprisoned and expelled from the country, they also helped her. They said she was going to be our united opposition candidate. So they threw the help in his back. And other than that, the special thing about Belarus is that the polls are forbidden here. You can’t do a survey. So there are no polls involving Lukashenko’s true approval rate. But in the age of the Internet, you can search for surveys online. And several surveys have been conducted. And some of them showed that aid for Mr Lukashenko was only 3%.
Sensationnel. Il it turns out he could succeed, or maybe just defeat Lukashenko.
Yes, but what happened is that when the effects are announced, Lukashenko gets 80% of the vote and, of course, other people realize that the total election was simply manipulated.
[PROTESTER’S SONG]
So, what they’re doing is going out to protest en masse.
But it turns out that Mr Lukashenko, expected this result, that this is what will happen, that other people will leave, because as soon as other people reach the rally . . .
[SIRENS BLARING]
– Almost immediately, huge armored police vans come in, and people, they don’t even do much.
[PROTESTING SINGERS AND HOLES]
They stop at the sidewalks clapping. And what you want to know about Mr. Belarus Lukashenko is that even if he applauds in teams of five from the sidewalk, he will be arrested and even beaten by the police.
Sensational.
And you have those fully dressed insurgent cops who show up at the place with rubber batons and are running around the protesters. But over time, what I see is that the number of protesters is increasing.
[PROTESTORES SONG]
And at some point, they even block a street.
[HONKING CARS]
And what the police are doing is offering backup. They bring army officers with shields, machines equipped with water cannons. They start using crippling grenades.
[POMEGRANATES EXPLODING]
There’s a scene of total chaos.
And that night, the first night, when many protesters were mercilessly beaten in police vans. They were beaten in the pre-trial detention center. They were packaged as sardines, another 36 people on a mobile provided for 4 other people. They didn’t win food or water. It’s essentially a mass torture camp.
Sensational.
And the scene of repression necessarily reminded me of Goulag.
So the purpose of breaking the spirit of these protesters and I am sure, even more than that, to publicize those tactics and absolutely break the backing of those demonstrations.
To scare other people into not even daring to pass out.
I’m curious to know how the rest of the world has reacted to this brutal crackdown on these protesters.
Well, the foreign network was surprised by all the images, calls have been made to punish Lukashenko in Belarus, calls have been made not to recognize the effects of this election and, in fact, the effects have not been recognized through the European Union and Many other states. Then, at one point, I had the impression that Lukashenko had been cornered. And what he did was address Vladimir Putin, essentially and publicly asking about him in this situation.
And how does Putin react?
For Putin, it’s much more advantageous to have Lukashenko so weak that he would just have to rely on Putin, and for Putin to be able to control him smoothly and get him to do what Putin wants, so he didn’t launch a lifeline. anything that could help him directly, but he didn’t condemn it either. And there’s no turning back, because after what the world has seen, it’s going to take a long time, so Lukashenko’s trapped. He’s trapped in Putin’s hands.
Ivan, what Lukashenko told the crowd at that rally that you ended a few Sundays ago, that if you get rid of me, it will be Belarus’s goal, but are you saying that Lukashenko himself is now so bound, so defined in Russia, that if he stays it would mean the end of Belarus, at least as an indefinite country?
Well, what he’s saying is that if you get rid of Lukashenko, there won’t be Belarus, but what he means is there won’t be Belarus Lukashenko, and then he’s willing to sacrifice at least one component of Belarusian independence in order to keep him afloat. his own Belarus.
Droite. Et a Belarus in which it will remain in force will be a Belarus that is indisputably aligned with Russia, dependent on Russia?
That’s what it looks like. Oui. Et Lukashenko showed no symptoms or willingness to voluntarily relinquisose power, no matter how many other people oppose him.
[MULTITUD CANTO]
On the same day, there was this pro-Lukashenko rally, there was another rally, and this absolutely different collecting from Mr. Lukashenko.
I think you have to go. We only want peace and a fair and equitable choice.
First of all, it’s much bigger. It gave the impression of being the largest collection in the history of Belarus, with more than 200,000 people present.
[MULTITUD CANTO]
We are here protesters who oppose violence against the Belarusian nation. Under no circumstances can other people be beaten at the police station.
And, of course, I had never noticed anything like this in Belarus; in fact, no one had noticed anything like this in Belarus, because at most other people, for 26 years, can’t do anything like that either. that for the average listener, it would probably seem, you know, that those other people came out and that’s anything, but still, I mean, it’s extraordinary. It’s a historic moment for those other people.
[MULTITUD CANTO]
And others sing, live Belarus, live Belarus!
Basically, tell him you, Lukashenko, are wrong. You’re Belarus.
We’re Belarus.
Ivan, thank you very much. We do that.
Thank you, Michael.
Since speaking with Ivan, large-scale protests in Belarus have continued, prompting a reaction from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who warned the country’s citizens that they opposed any attempt to overthrow Lukashenko, noting that Russia has formed a special team of security agents for, quotes, “Restore order in Belarus if necessary. “Meanwhile, Western countries and several former Soviet republics will impose sanctions against Belarusian leaders in reaction to what they called fraudulent elections and Lukashenko’s crackdown on nonviolent protesters.
We’ll be back.
Here’s what you want to know today.
We’re here to show ours in Kenosha and Wisconsin. The state of Wisconsin has been very smart with me. I love people. We’ve done a lot for the state.
On Tuesday, President Trump defied the wishes of the state and local government by traveling to Kenosha, Wisconsin, where he met with local law enforcement officials and visited a business block destroyed last week by riots caused by the Jacob Blake police shooting. .
Kenosha swept through riots against the police and the Americans. They have been hit hard. AND . . .
As he has for days, Trump has obviously aligned himself with the police and harshly criticized the protesters for desinging them illegal, and the Times reports that Biden’s crusade raised more than $300 million in August between his crusade and his committees shared with the Democratic Party. Much of the money was raised from small donors and seems to reflect Democrats’ enthusiasm for Biden’s selection of Senator Kamala Harris as a vice presidential candidate, which happened during the fundraising period. “The diary. ” I’m Michael Barbaro, I’ll see you tomorrow.
Denouncing two weeks of protests across the country opposed to his disputed re-election as the paintings of a few spoiled Minsk inhabitants with furtive aliens, Lukashenko traveled to the west of the country on Saturday to gather his dwindling base.
“There are still some other unmet people in Minsk,” he told a crowd of enthusiastic followers, “but be concerned. That’s my problem. Believe me, we’ll be a success in no time.
If you do, you will largely count on the loyalty of your security apparatus, which has shown no signs of weakness in your commitment to Lukashenko.
It will also feature Putin, Putin’s long-time benefactor Lukashenko and his recurring ally. Throughout his years in power, Lukashenko, 65, blew hot and bloodless towards Moscow, which he accused last month of conspiring to overthrow him, but now sees Moscow as his most productive hope in the face of a wave of foreign election complaints. denounced in Europe and the United States as evidently manipulated.
The formula he created is less of a government than an eccentric one-man display in which all of Mr Lukashenko’s powers and decisions. His supporters call him “Batka,” a loving term for the father who pleases the president. through Soviet-era factories and farms, all controlled through it. The Organization of Young Soviets, Komsomol, has been revived and is widely known as “Lukamol”.
“There are no Biélorussie. Il there are no independent power bases. It’s just him,” said Nigel Gould-Davies, a former British ambassador to Belarus.
The only other user who could import is Mr. Lukashenko, Nikolai, 15, of whom many will be the undeclared heir.
Mr. Gould-Davies, now a researcher at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, recalls attending a reception offered by the President in Minsk and having to shake hands not only with Mr. Lukashenko, but also with his son, who was only about five years old. at that moment. The generals of the Belarusian army have had to greet for years the son, whose mother has not yet officially known who Mr Lukashenko is believed to be.
“The total formula is unrthodox and a little ridiculous. But this is not in any way comical or benign. It’s incredibly unpleasant,” Gould-Davies said.
Lukashenko’s government harasses, imprisons and tortures even critics, some of whom have disappeared. He arrested journalists, crushed independent media and brutally suppressed dissent.
Belarus, Krol said, “is not North Korea” and “does not catch other people either way. “But if you meet Mr. Lukashenko, he said, “you will be taught a lesson from which you may not recover. “
During the recent campaign, he ruled out his main rival, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, as too weak to rule the country due to her gender. The Belarusian Constitution, which gives the president broad powers, he said, “is for a woman. Our society. Is mature enough to vote for a woman. “
It was a “very rude shock” when it became transparent that Ms. Tikhanovskaya could win a fair election, said Andrew Wilson, professor at University College London and writer of “Belarus: The Last European Dictatorship. “
“He embraced this myth of himself as a man, muzhik or a genuine man, who thinks a woman’s position is cooking,” Wilson said.
When she came to the electoral commission a day after Election Day to complain about a large forgery, Ms. Tikhanovskaya greeted the security officers who arrested her for hours and forced her to do what was equivalent to a hostage video in which she detained her supporters. protest the outcome. He left Belarus under pressure that night for neighboring Lithuania.
Lukashenko, who last week warned the mutiny staff at the tractor factory that he would respond “cruelly” to any “provocation,” has long been dragged away by a reputation for violence. other people who worked under his leadership at the collective pig farm Horodets.
“It was cruel,” said Valery Karbalevich, the writer of a long Russian political biography of Mr. Lukashenko. “He is a fan of the force. He does not have a genuine life as a circle of relatives or friends and he cannot even believe he has a life when he is not the leader.
Many of his war parts make the president a ruthless and ruthless series.
“He’s been a nutcase and very brutal,” said Andrei Sannikov, a former diplomat imprisoned and tortured after opposing Mr. Lukashenko in 2010. “He’ll do anything to stay in power. I don’t know what you’re talking about. “about. “
This is evident this month when protesters took to the streets and were brutally beaten by insurrection police, killed at least two people, injured in cargoes and arrested some 7,000 people.
“Yes, I am not a saint, ” said Lukashenko to the strikers in Minsk last week. “You know my toughness. You know if there’s no hardness, there wouldn’t be a country.
When Saddam Hussein said he won one hundred percent of the vote in a 2002 referendum to extend his strength in Iraq, Lukashenko sent a message of admiration of congratulations. In 2005, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Belarus “the last genuine dictatorship in central Europe. “
Krol, the U. S. ambassador to Minsk at the time, said the description annoyed Belarusian diplomats, but never seemed to disturb Lukashenko, who has snubed him to be called a dictator.
He also declared ice hockey, such as saunas and tractor driving, as remedies for Covid-19. At the height of the pandemic in March, he went to the ice and announced, “There are no viruses here. “
Lukashenko has long presented the West as a risk and turned to Russia for help, and as a imaginable way to capture much greater power.
When President Boris NY ruled Russia in the 1990s, Lukashenko lobbied for the formation of a “state of unity,” a flexible amalgamation between Belarus and Russia. Because Yeltsin was ill most of the time, Lukashenko believed that he could simply dominate the new entity and perhaps even revive the Soviet Union with him as its leader.
Belarus Radio, a state-controlled broadcaster, has intensified its signal and bombed Russia with allegations of the flexible market economy and reassuring reports on how, thanks to Mr Lukashenko, Belarusians had escaped the chaos and anguish of the Russians.
However, Mr Lukashenko’s ambitions suffered a serious setback when, on 31 December 1999, Mr Lukashenko suffered a serious setback: Yeltsin, in poor health and discouraged, resigned, leaving a former KGB young man, full of life and ruthless, agent Vladimir V. Putin, to assume the presidency of Russia.
Putin never welcomed Lukashenko, whom he considered a provincial upstart with concepts above his position, but has provided Belarus with reasonable oil and gas, which has contributed to the country’s economy and Lukashenko’s popularity for more than a decade. .
More recently, however, the Belarusian economy has stagnated and the Kremlin is fed up with Lukashenko, dissatisfied with his regular flirtations with the West and his refusal to put into effect the “state of unity” he had once defended.
Russia reduced its fuel subsidies to Belarus and, this year, eliminated them. The Belarusian economy collapsed, accompanying Lukashenko.
Like many leaders who have clung to force for too long, Lukashenko has lost contact with his people, with his biographer, Mr. Karbalevich.
“He has lost his ties to society, ” said Karbalevich. ” He is no longer a foreigner fighting the elite, but the leader of the elite. “
Ivan Nechepurenko contributed to the minsk.
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